Analysis of Existing Radio Adverts

The main advert I heard was on Radio 1, which was promoting their regular summer concert, The Big Weekend. The announcer’s delivery was in an up-beat style and included lots of references to the artists who are appearing. As all the acts were household names - Snow Patrol, Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand and the Saturdays - this type of event will be oversubscribed and the promoters do not have to try too hard to get people to attend. This commercial used a straight announcer with a background track of music from the main acts which were easily recognisable as they had previously been chart hits. The script included the dates and location of the venue, as well as reference to a Radio 1 website where further information and tickets were available. I noted no telephone numbers were ever broadcast and the bulk of the promotional advertising for the gig was done during the Breakfast Show, when the majority of the target audience was listening.  

On other adverts which were promoting smaller events with less well known bands I heard a similar style of delivery by the announcer. Sometimes it was little more conversational and informal to appeal to the target audience. I also noticed the radio commercials all had integrated links to websites where tickets and more in depth information about the gig were available. Music backing tracks which crossfaded with the announcer also appeared on most of the promotions but some only consisted of a straight announcer and I felt these fell a bit flat and lacked the impact of those featuring music.

When I come to prepare my own radio commercial I will include many of the features I picked out as being good practice in the adverts I listened to on the various stations. I will make sure there is a backing track from one of the local groups to accompany the announcer as the commercial would sound bland if this was missing. I also enjoyed the straight announcer type style where the listener feels they are being spoken to as an individual. By using these techniques employed by the radio professionals I heard, I hope to maximise impact and interest in my target audience.